December 2nd, 2007
Welcome, winter
By Christopher DeWolf // 2 Comments
This year, winter came early, with an endless week of snow and slush. The snowstorm last night was nice, though, a reminder of the calm that descends over the city in mid-winter, its noise muffled under a blanket of heavy snow.
One year ago winter arrived not with snow but with verglas. I remember very clearly on the evening of last December 1st, falling asleep after an exhausting day, only to wake up to a dark apartment and the eerie echo of freezing rain outside. It was the middle of rush hour and the power was out, so cars and buses crawled along Park Avenue as pedestrians navigated the treacherous sidewalk.
I've always been fascinated by the way that weather changes our experience of the city. This is especially true for freezing rain, which encases it in an ethereal but potentially deadly beauty. Last year, I wandered, slightly in awe, through streets lined by frozen trees, their branches swaying in the wind and occasionally cracking, a bolt of lightning following quickly by the thunderous roar of branches crashing to the ground.
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Chris, your pictures and articles are fantastic. I just discovered the blog while looking ofr info on Griffintown. It is very well documented and a fascinating look on our city. Bravo! oh : and I love your freezing rain pictures.
I remember that day all to clearly. That day happened to fall on one of my many moving days that I had to endure over my first 7 or 8 months in Montreal. I remember my friend driving down the Decarie in that freezing rain and being scared out of my mind. We made the move from Verdun to St-Henri and wanted to die by the end of it.
Comment by Chris Erb
December 3, 2007 | 3:06 am